Final Fantasy VII, Aeris/Cloud - coming home at last
This, this right here is home.
The bar, with it’s loud patrons and sharp smells is where he lives, but it isn’t home. It’s Tifa’s home, and where Denzel and Marlene stay. His family. Still doesn’t make it home. A place where he sleeps, where people want him there. A place where Rude and Reno are coming by more often, and Tifa and them smile a bit more.
He could have told her that the pair were a packaged deal, but she to be figuring that out just fine on her own. Didn’t seem to mind it too awfully much either.
Home is here, where things are quiet, and the smells are softened by the scent of clean water and fresh growing things.
It’s quieted down over the last few years. Sometimes people come to see the healing waters and the place where flowers grow in the remains of Midgar, but most stayed away. It was a sacred place, and people could sense that. For most, it seemed to keep them away, the same way that the Forgotten City kept them away.
For Cloud, it was a quiet homecoming. Where Aeris and Zack would come and say hello, though Zack had been busy lately working on dealing with Sephiroth, who was stirring again. At least if what they had been telling Cloud was true.
::Hello, Cloud. Welcome home.::
Cloud smiled. “Hello, Aeris. Zack occupied?”
A flash of white, and he was sitting in a field of flowers, Aeris next to him. She leaned against him, hand resting on his thigh. ::Yes. Sephiroth has been active, and Zack’s trying to calm him down. He’s better at it than I am.::
A chuckle. “He just likes sparring with him.”
Aeris gave her own laugh. ::It’s not so much sparring, though there is a -lot- of activity.::
For a half second, Cloud was confused, then he felt himself flush. “I, um, oh.....”
More laughter from Aeris. ::So shy at times.:: Shifting, she settled herself in his lap. This was the only place they could do this, when her connection to him was strong enough for it to turn into touch.
A shiver ran up his spine, and Cloud rested his hands on her waist. Voice dropping, he flexed his hands. “And I bet you don’t mind watching the pair of them.”
::Not one bit, though Sephiroth is just as shy as you at times.:: She leaned in, and kissed him softly. ::Or maybe he’s just possessive of his time with Zack.::
Cloud kissed back easily. There was something twisted about this, he was sure. Sleeping with the dead, though not in a normal way.
But when had he ever been normal?
It didn’t take long for their clothing to simply melt away. Much easier to deal with his buckles and belts and Aeris’s buttons here, where she could simply will them away, and she sank down on him, the pair still kissing.
This, this right here, was home. With her, and Zack when he joined them. It wasn’t healthy, he knew, preferring the dead over the living, but he split his time between them anyway. It was his life, and this made him happy.
Hands sliding up Aeris’s back, he wove his fingers into her hair, the other resting along the slim lines of her spine, feeling her muscles move as she rocked on him. The taste of her skin, which he remembered so well from before, had an undertone that reminded him of the water as he kissed along her throat. And he couldn’t imagine how the feel of her groan under his lips would have been any better if this was the reality that everyone else lived in.
This was home for him, with Aeris hot and wet around him, smelling musky and warm, making groaning, hungry sounds. Her skin was smooth under his hands, and Cloud just continued to move, happy here to let things draw out.
This was home, and he didn’t think he would ever want any other.